Why Eric Bailly Probably Wasn’t Tapped By Manchester City
Reports suggest new United signing Eric Bailly was sought after by Manchester City too, however he elected to play for Jose Mourinho instead. We look at how and why this probably didn’t happen.
Perhaps of all the feelings expressed by your average football fan, nothing brings a greater sense of satisfaction than having a player that another team want, but won’t be able to have. It taps into the same primal urge as Pokémon Go to acquire shiny things all to yourself that somehow, in some way, prove you are superior and there’s nothing the other individual can do about it.
Every club does it. Heck, Manchester City fans patented it with their “We’ve got Robinho!” chant, perhaps somewhat laced with irony given the player himself seemed to believe he had signed for Chelsea.
Nonetheless, this week we saw United take things a step further, getting the propaganda division involved to help stir those positive, yet base, vibes in a fan base currently floating in very uncharted waters. New United arrival Eric Bailly was quoted by several otherwise respectable media outlets, notably Sky Sports, as suggesting he turned down the opportunity to join Pep Guardiola’s City for Jose instead:
"“I wanted to play for someone who works very hard. I didn’t speak to Pep Guardiola but the ‘second’ manager called me and Mourinho called me as well.“He said come and play for me. I prefer Mourinho, in part because of Didier Drogba, who Mourinho worked with.“I have played with Didier in the Ivory Coast, he is a friend and he told me, ‘Jose did this for me, Jose did that for me’.“Yaya also called me and said come to City. But once Jose spoke to me and Didier gave me advice, I knew straight away I wanted to play for him.”"
Personally, I find the whole thing to be a bit of a head-scratcher. Who exactly is Eric Bailly?
Well, he’s an Ivorian Central Defender who moved to United this Summer from Villarreal for an unusually large fee north of £30million. Statistically, not an awful lot stands out about Bailly. His pass completion percentage of 77 last season is quite underwhelming for a defender, indeed lower than anyone who featured in Manchester City’s back four. His average number of tackles (1.8), clearences (4.7) and average passes per game (31.1) were also fair-to-middling.
More from Manchester City
- Manchester City and their enigmatic coach stand on the cusp of greatness
- Three challenges Manchester City might face in upcoming season
- 3 potential destinations for Raheem Sterling next season
- Manchester City officially announce Erling Haaland signing
- Gabriel Jesus set for Manchester City departure
That’s not to say it’s unlikely the Blues were after Bailly for his performances. Goodness knows, defensively City were among the worst last season and, at 22, Bailly certainly has more than enough promise to blossom under a top manager. No, instead, what really tips this off as dubious is the reasoning behind it.
We learned just last week that several clubs, among them Palmeiras, Barcelona and Real Madrid, were complaining about Guardiola personally contacting their contracted players to convince them to come to the Etihad. Indeed, this personal touch from Pep was one of the reasons Ilkay Gundogan, Nolito, Marlos Moreno and Gabriel Jesus all elected City over the competition. We know too he spoke to as-yet-not-signed Leroy Sane and John Stones. Why wouldn’t he speak to Bailly?
Even more so, why did Manchester City not bother sending anyone to speak to Bailly and left it up to, of all people, Yaya Toure to convince him to come, if they were really serious? It doesn’t make sense and it doesn’t fit the bill.
If the story is to be believed, then it seems Bailly was not convinced by Yaya’s, doubtless impassioned, plea for him to play for the Blues and took instead to heart the words of Didier Drogba who spoke highly of former-manager Jose Mourinho. This particularly argument beggars belief. Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho are not unknown commodities. It’s impossible to be a footballer and not know of Pep’s Barcelona side, often referred to as the best team in history, or Jose’s success with teams like Porto, Real and Chelsea.
A professional footballer isn’t making a multi-million pound decision based on who has the most impassioned supporter amongst your friends. That’s in normal situations, but in a case were the two teams are managed by Mourinho and Guardiola respectively, it’s even more unthinkable.
In my mind, City were never interested in Bailly, indeed United seemingly had a clear run at him, and all this talk is just fanning the flames of rivalry between the two sides, to their benefit. Bailly didn’t pick them, he picked us, he’s a hero, now buy his shirt. Maybe.
Next: Manchester City Acquire Another Young Talent
In the end, we may never know, but like with many things you see and hear this summer, take it all with a grain of salt and in the spirit of good fun. As you never know, it could just be Robinho all over again.